04.09.2018 - Press releases

The legal tools proposed in the Minority SafePack Initiative represent a solution to the law enforcement abuses recently witnessed in Romania regarding the use of community symbols – stated Loránt Vincze in Transylvania where he attended panel discussions organised in Târgu-Mureș/Marosvásárhely and Satu-Mare/Szatmárnémeti. The FUEN President added: sadly, the Romanian authorities choose to interpret the law very restrictively when it comes to the use of the symbols of the Hungarian minority living in the country, and they claim that whatever the law does not specifically allow for is consequently forbidden.

As the media in Romania has reported, several community leaders of the Hungarian minority have been severely fined by the Romanian authorities for allowing the community symbols of the minority community to be displayed on official buildings and town halls in towns where Hungarians live in a considerable number.

Loránt Vincze pointed out: one important characteristic of the EU legislation is that, once Member States adopt it, it becomes obligatory, and an infringement procedure is initiated in case of noncompliance making EU laws a far more powerful instrument than the provisions of the international agreements some Member States ratify but often fail to adhere to. Therefore, stressed the FUEN President, in order to ensure real minority protection in Europe, the legislative instruments proposed in the Minority Safepack Initiative need to become EU laws.

Regarding the current situation of the Minority SafePack European Citizen’s Initiative the president of the minority umbrella organisation said that, following the successful petition campaign, in the upcoming months the FUEN will work towards disseminating the message of the initiative: the issues of autochthonous national minorities in Europe deserve to be addressed and deserve a reassuring solution for which minorities ask for the support of majority communities in the form of a minority-majority pact. Through this initiative minorities in Europe can reach toward the goal of an EU level legislative framework to be adopted after the upcoming European election. “This will be the most important thing on my to do list in the following months”, stated Loránt Vincze adding: “We need to be determined and consequent in representing the interest of national minorities in an ever changing Europe”.